Concord votes to close 65-student high school

Voters have decided to close the community's tiny high school at the end of this term.

More than half of all registered voters participated in Tuesday's special election with 285 votes to shut down the high school and 210 to keep it open. The vote was the tenth time townspeople have been asked to close the high school in the past 20 years. The last vote was in 2012, and the measure failed by 23 votes.

Supporters of the closure argued that students would be better served by using tax dollars to attend other, larger schools like St. Johnsbury Academy. Concord High School graduate Roger Joslin— who was among the petitioners who helped put the ballot before voters —said residents are starting to realize that smaller schools often don't offer enough.

But Barbara Olden, also a Concord High School graduate, said the closure decision is going to be hard on the students and she voted to keep the doors open because the school has been good for her, her children and her seven grandchildren.

Superintendent Brian Rayburn said the vote was "pretty decisive," and efforts will be made to move all 65 students to other high schools.

Rayburn and the school board had developed a budget before the vote that included the high school and one that did not, waiting until after the town's vote to decide which budget to settle on. The budget that doesn't include the high school is about $187,000 less than the initial budget of $4,760,302, which voters had rejected on Town Meeting Day.

Rayburn said the tax rate will not be lower because without a high school, there will be no children coming to school with tuition from outside Concord.

The school board is expected to make a final decision on the budget at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday. The board will also be scheduling a revote.